It depends on what you consider worship. A lot of the times when it says people “worshipped” before God it means they prostrated themselves, not that they started singing hymns and clapping and speaking in tongues.
Evangelical protestants, and here I speak from some experience, have their own “flavor” of worship. My mom was fond of saying that the meaning of worship used by King David meant “to be foolish” before God. I never bothered to check up on that, somehow I doubt that is a correct translation, but it is a common one I have heard before. They tend to see worship as singing, sometimes prayer, speaking blessings towards God, etc. Since they tend to only show any form of veneration to God, one could see how they don’t quite jibe with veneration towards Mary and the saints…Their contemplative worship I do not believe has been as well-developed as the catholic “version”, but they do consider standing with their hands up and as my mom again would say, “basking in the name of Jesus.” I am merely giving you some examples here. From my experience, evangelical protestants are not liturgical, but tend to divide worship between singing and praying, with some tongues and prophecy as well (usually during the singing portion.) There is no kneeling or bowing as a corporate whole, it tends to be on an individual basis.
Catholic worship tends to use the whole body more, as a congregation, and take advantage of all the senses. Remember the statement above about prostrating? This is important because the catholic idea of worship I believe centers on the idea of glorifying the Lord with all of your being. Hence you may right there notice a parallel to our genuflections. The incense appeals to our sense of smell and represents prayers to God. The holy water and sign of the cross calls to mind our baptism. I basically see our idea of worship as the acts in my relationship with God that let Him know I love Him. In worship we acknowledge His holiness with our whole bodies. We bow our heads at the mention of the name, we kneel before the Host, we sing the psalms praising His name. In the rosaries we contemplate the mystery of Christ’s life. A life devoted to serving others in itself is an act of worship *and *sacrifice, which is why priests have my utmost respect.
So how do I let my wife know I love her? I show her that I remember our relationshiop and what it means to me. Is this not the Eucharist? A remembrance of Him that you are in a relationship with? Is this not Baptism? When I mess up, to show my wife I love her I make restitution for my wrongs. Is this not reconciliation? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then is not the very sacrament of marriage, patterned after the trinity, a form of worship? I have an interest in chanted Psalmody, where the purpose is not to see how good we can sing, but to involve our whole being into a praise of God. Chanting because of it’s nature of focusing on God instead of inidivdual, is also I believe a very sincere form of worship, and is the preferred “music” during the liturgy.
In sum, catholic worship is acknowledging the originator of holiness with all of our beings. It is showing God that we love Him by calling to mind our relationship. Sacraments, verbal blessings, singing, prostrations and genuflections, signs of the cross, prayers with incense, candles, prayer, scripture reading, a holy life; this is all worship. And it involves all of you.
